Dangerous fever Frankfurt Lassa patient is getting better

Patient infected with Lassa in Frankfurt on the way to recovery
According to the Frankfurt University Hospital, it is the Lassa patient who is there in treatment, much better. He'll be well soon. The employee of a funeral home had been infected with a deadly Lassa fever.

Frankfurt Lassa patient "largely mobile"
Only a few days ago it was said that the condition of the Frankfurt Lassa fever patient was unchanged, but meanwhile the man is doing much better. As the University Hospital stated in a press release, the patient was "largely mobile, but still weakened". The man, who works in a funeral home in Rhineland-Palatinate, has been treated for more than two weeks at the special isolation ward of the Frankfurt University Hospital. According to the information, he had infected himself with the body of a Lassa infected person who had died at the end of February in the University Hospital Cologne.

The Lassa patient in Frankfurt is much better, according to the clinic. The Undertaker had become infected with a dead body. (Image: Argus / fotolia.com)

First Lassa infection outside of Africa
It is said that the deceased was a 46-year-old US citizen who had worked as a nurse in Togo. From there he had been referred to Cologne with the diagnosis of malaria. Only a few hours later he was dead. Although the body was transported in a special container to the funeral home, it was not known at that time that the man had died of Lassa fever. A short time after specialists had detected the virus in the dead, the diagnosis was also confirmed in the Undertaker. The case is the world's first known Lassa infection outside of Africa. So far, the pathogen was only introduced to Germany in very few cases.

Physicians expected good chances of recovery
"We are happy that we were able to help the patient recover soon. This was only possible thanks to the great commitment of medical professionals. I would like to express my heartfelt thanks for this special commitment, "said Professor Jürgen Schölmerich, Medical Director and Chief Executive Officer of the University Hospital Frankfurt. The man suffered after his admission to the hospital under "all signs of a serious viral infection," explained the attending senior physician Timo Wolf in an earlier report. But because he had come to the hospital in a very early stage of the disease, the physicians expected from the beginning with good chances of recovery.

Infections are often mild or without symptoms
Lassa belongs as well as Ebola, Dengue or Marburg to the so-called "hemorrhagic fever diseases". The virus can cause fever, headache and muscle ache, and in the further course of skin bleeding, diarrhea and vomiting are possible. In an emergency, the infection can lead to internal bleeding and thus become life-threatening. According to the Robert Koch Institute (RKI), infection is often mild or without symptoms. Lassa is distributed in several countries in West Africa. Annually, about 100,000 to 300,000 people become infected with the virus, up to two percent die from it. In Germany, the disease is very rare. Since 1974 not even a dozen imported cases have come from Africa. A vaccine is currently not available. (Ad)